Choosing the Right DAW for Your Studio

LEFT: Ableton’s Live is an excellent tool if your productions use extensive audio and MIDI loops.
RIGHT: A relative newcomer to the DAW game, Studio One from PreSonus offers efficient operation,
a powerful suite of tools, and it’s easy to learn and use.

Over the past nine installments of this
series on choosing the best gear for
your studio and recording rig, we’ve covered
a lot of ground. We’ve looked at microphones,
monitors, headphones, computers,
audio interfaces, standalone recorders, and
more. (If you missed an installment or want
a quick refresher course, just head over to
premierguitar.com.) This time around, let’s
discuss software—the centerpiece of most
studios these days. While there are a number
of types of software for audio and music
production, we’re going to focus on the
digital audio workstation (DAW), the main
software tool for the majority of studios.

DAW software has evolved to the point
that you can truly turn a desktop or laptop
computer—or even an iPad (we’ll cover this
in a future column)—into a powerful, fully
equipped recording studio. From recording
the raw tracks, to editing and processing,
and mixdown to final mastering, you can
do it all in a DAW. In fact, just about any
program available today can do far more
than we will ever ask or need it to. The
challenge is figuring out which program is
best for you.

Programs such as Avid’s Pro Tools,
Steinberg’s Cubase, Apple’s Logic,
Cakewalk’s Sonar, and MOTU’s Digital
Performer have been around for many
years, and each has a large and dedicated
user base. Pro Tools is perhaps the most
recognized, because it dominates the professional
studio market. Those with longtime
recording engineering experience tend to
gravitate towards Pro Tools because it probably
most closely follows the traditional,
recording studio paradigm. So if you’re
going to be taking your work to and from
commercial facilities, it’s a great choice.
But Cubase, Logic, Sonar, and Digital
Performer are also used for productions of
all types and at all levels.

Pro Tools and Cubase are available for
both Mac and Windows users, and Digital
Performer (which has always been Mac
only) now has a Windows version on the
way. Logic remains a Mac program, while
Sonar is Windows only. A more recent
addition to the list of “power DAWs” is
Studio One from PreSonus. It’s available
for Mac and Windows, and is making some
serious inroads because of its ease of use
and friendly design.

There is another group of programs
that are spun a bit differently from the
“traditional” DAWs already mentioned. In
this category, I would place Propellerhead’s
Reason (Mac and Windows), which has a
long history as a music-creation program
loaded with synthesizers, samplers, beat
and groove tools, and more. But the latest
version of Reason now has full DAW-style
recording and mixing power, making it a
one-stop solution for many musicians and
songwriters. Formerly called Fruity Loops,
Image Line’s FL Studio (Windows only)
boasts DAW-style recording to synth-based,
music-production tools as well. Ableton’s
Live (Mac and Windows) has DAW-style
capabilities, but it also possesses some
incredible features that set it apart for working
with and creating loop-based music.
And Sony’s Acid (Windows only) is another
software program that specializes in loop-based
music creation.

Dollars and Sense
Do you have to spend a lot of money on a
DAW? Some programs can get a bit pricey.
That said, many of the examples in this
column are available as scaled-down versions
at reduced prices, while still offering
loads of music-making and recording power
for serious production work. Examples
include Studio One Artist from PreSonus,
Steinberg’s Cubase Elements, Cakewalk’s
Sonar X1 Essential, and Ableton’s Live
Intro. There are also lower-priced commercial
DAWs—that are still extremely powerful—
such as Reaper from Cockos (Mac and
Windows), Acoustica’s Mixcraft (Windows
only), and Steinberg’s Sequel.

I’ve used most of these products for making
music and have found that they can
all do the job perfectly well, and provide
incredibly long lists of features and capabilities
to boot. So, which DAW is best for you?
You can start by simply eliminating a few
choices based on your computer’s operating
system. Next, I would consider what the
musicians and studios you work with are
using. If everyone you work with is a Pro
Tools user, for example, it makes sense to
choose the same platform so you can easily
exchange files and provide each other with
help when needed. Most DAWs can work
with loops to some extent, but if you’re really
serious about using loops, a program such
as Ableton Live might be the way to go.

Beyond these considerations, you can’t
go too far wrong with whichever DAW you
choose. They can all get the job done, no
matter what the musical genre or production
need. But there is one last thing to
consider. It may sound strange, but I highly
recommend looking at screenshots from the
programs you are considering, because you
are going to be staring at the program you
choose for many hours. If you don’t like
how it looks, don’t buy it. Those hours will
be much more enjoyable if the DAW you
choose looks and feels attractive to you.

Next time, more on studio and music-making
software!

Mitch Gallagher is
the former editor in chief of
EQ magazine. He’s written
more than 1,000 articles
and six books on recording
and music technology, and
has released an instructional
DVD on mastering. His upcoming book is
entitled Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate
Electric Guitar Sound. To learn more, visit
mitchgallagher.com.

Mitch Gallagher's latest book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineer/producer/mastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at Indiana University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. mitchgallagher.com.